Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1887-12-01
AN ITALIAN EDITOR
TALKS FRANKLY ABOUT THE NEWS.
PAPERS OF HIS COUNTRY.

| Stupid Governmental Repressive Meas
ures Under an Old Law-Getting Ahead
of the Authorities-News and Fiction.
| A List of Journals.
The office of The Messagero, of Rome, is
situated in the Via del Buffalo, and here cor
respondent called by appointment the other
day upon the editor and proprietor, Sig
| Luigi Cesana, in order to receive an Italian
editors frank opinion on the newspaper press
| of his country
"You come apropos," said Sig. Cesana
"we have just been seized," and he smiled
cheerily, us if an honor had just been con-
ferred upon him and not a serious loss in
| flicted. 'YOu see," he continued, "every
morning we have to deliver copy of the
paper to the procuratore del re, the censor.
In today's issue we had a memorial article on
the Paris commune, simply and purely his
torical, as you can see for yOurself"-and he
stealthily drew last remaining copy from
| his desk-"and at 7:30 this morning the po-
lice entered, stating that the issue had been
suppressed and ordering me to yield up the
whole edition and to distribute the type in
their presence. Some papers had already
| gone out, but they will seize them at the book
stalls or snatch them out of your hands as
you walk along the streets They have done
this to me many times before.
STUPID REPREssIvE MEASURES.
"But these people are as stupid as their re-
pressive measuresl,. You can form no idea of
| their imbecility. The law of 1S4S is the law
of confscation, under which they seize-of
| 1881 making no allowance for the improve
ments in machinery since then, which almost
makes newspaper printing another art. So
| they order me to distribute the type, evidently
| thinking that we print from the type-so
utterly ignorant are they of the business with
which they are brought into daily contact
| Of course, we use a Marioni machine as they
can see, and print from plates cast from a
| paper mache mold, that has been taken from
the type. If they were to ask for our plates
| or mold, that would be another thing; but
| they think in looking after the type they have
| done the business. OF course, tonight shall
| print off a new edition of the suppressed
paper, and in two days time it will be dis
| patched free to my friends in the provinces
-nO doubt they will make me some little
| present in return)-by which time the au-
| thorities will have forgotten all about the
| incident and my views and history will have
| circulated.
"As the divine attributes and achievements
| and liberty of the English are too idaaj==en--
| tirely beyond our hope to emulate or even
approach in the present generatiol-we as
| pire only to form our model on the French
press. for the Italians have great affection
| and admiration for everything French. Our
kilograms and our feuilletons chiefly come
from France by arrangement with editors
and authors. As regards kilograms, we all
subscribe to the Stefani agency by reason Of
about 95 a month. But it is practically in
the governments hands, and there is conse-
quently no independence. How could thers
be, with the government exercising its power,
when anything unpalatable to it passes over
the wires either to burke the telegram alto
gether or to delay it twenty-four hours or SO,
till the message is of no danger to them and Of
no use to us? The special telegraph corre-
spondence' which our papers boast rarely in
cludes foreign dispatches, though few papers
can plume themselves on telegraphic commu-
nication with a Paris newspaper But our
people are not educated up to, nor interested
in foreign events, except so far as directly
affects themselves.
SOME EXCELLENT PAPERS.
"Our people demand 'feuilletons;' they will
have them. and the paper that wants to sue
ceed must have them. We have not even the
excuse of the French editor that in introducing
fiction acknowledged fiction, l mean into his
news sheet he is encouraging native literary
talent. regret to say that we have no such
talent at present Our feuiletons are bought
from French editors or authors, and, whether
new or not, are paid for at the rate of 920
novel, which will run through sixty, seventy
or eighty numbers.
"The despotism under which we labor has
not been able to prevent the growth of some
excellent papers, as Italian papers go. Milan,
the real literary and journalistic center of
Italy, has its Secolo, with its 100000 circula-
ton, a paper illustrated with portraits and
views in the same manner and by the same
process as The Pail Mall Gazette. Besides
this it publishes from time to time elaborate
illustrated supplements gratis to its subscri-
bers Then there is The Pungolo, The Corriere
della Sera 100000, and L'Italia Q5,000, the
last conducted in the American style. Genoa
has The Epoco 100000, a democratic paperI
Naples The Piccolo, The Pungolo and several
others of considerable age, and Turin the
weAknown Gazzetta del Popolo. But it is
the same cry with them all-repression, Off
cial and social, which afflicts them.
"1n my own sphere l am trying remedy
by making my business cooperative affair,
giving my writers share in the profits in
addition to a salary. Not until an editor and
his staff can vie with minister and his cabi-
net I'm independence, riches, and popular es-
teem-even power, as is often the case in
England and sometimes in FRANCISCAN we
compel the respect of society; and not until
we purge our statute books of injustice and
anomaly, and educate our masses, can the
Italian press be worthy to compete with the
press of northwestern Europe Foreign
Letter.